Leviathan Wakes

No cover

James S.A. Corey: Leviathan Wakes (2015, Little, Brown Book Group Limited)

English language

Published April 12, 2015 by Little, Brown Book Group Limited.

ISBN:
978-0-356-50611-1
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4 stars (425 reviews)

When Captain Jim Holden's ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war. Attacked by a stealth ship belonging to the Mars fleet, Holden must find a way to uncover the motives behind the attack, stop a war and find the truth behind a vast conspiracy that threatens the entire human race.

18 editions

reviewed Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #1)

Absolutely cool

4 stars

Original review here

This was a series I frequently saw compared with some of the all time classics of Science Fiction, such as Asimov’s Foundation or Herbert’s Dune. So I really wanted to give them a go for a while.

I have to admit the book was completely different to my expectations, but not in a bad way.

When I think of grandiose space opera classics, I kind of imagine humans expanding throughout the universe, faster than light travel and cosmical events we can’t comprehend, and technology advancements beyond compare. Of course these concepts are used in widely different ways in the genre.

In a lot of classic and modern works of science fiction, the style is usually filled with minimalist architecture, brand new tech, shiny spaceships and sterile, practical interiors.

In The Expanse’s Leviathan Wakes features Humanity expanding just in the Solar System, with more grimy and lived-in ships …

Ich habe es nicht anders erwartet

5 stars

Das Buch hat mich genau so gefesselt wie die Serie. Auch wenn hier so 3er oder 4er Bewertungen stehen, für mich ist das Buch ein neues Universum und mit ganz neuen Bereichen, wie sich die Menschheit ausgebreitet hat und doch nicht von seinen alten Lastern loskommt, anderen ihren Willen aufzudrücken. Allein sich das Universum so auszudenken, mit der dreier Konstellation ist schon ganz gut

Excellent read after enjoying the TV show

5 stars

I encountered the TV show, The Expanse, before discovering it was originally a book series. I'm glad I experienced the two formats in that order. Reading the book was in some way a replay of the TV show, since I pictured and heard the actors as I read.

If you haven't come across either, Leviathan Wakes is the first in a monumental space opera series, set centuries in the future, where humans have colonized most of the solar system, where Mars is a space-faring power that exists in an uneasy and unstable tension with an overcrowded Earth, and where the "Belters" (the inhabitants of the asteroid belt and the moons of the outer planets, are resentful at how they're taken for granted and exploited by the two planets.

A powerful corporation's attempts to weaponize an alien organism destabilizes an already unstable solar system.

This massive canvas is the backdrop for …

Excellent start of a great series.

5 stars

I started this series because I loved the TV show and wanted to experience the world more after it ended. I loved the writing style of the book, the writers do a good hard SF world without going in very long descriptions of the world, weaving the SF details in the world elegantly.

I'm impressed how close the show stuck to the book, but I also enjoy the differences, already looking forward to the next book that introduces two of my favourite characters from the show.

A review from Goodreads

4 stars

I don't know why but I was expecting a fast action-paced space opera. But I thought it had too many political discussions and background and a lack of action. I enjoyed the world-building, though! It seems like this world can be expanded and explored to create amazing stories. I like noir-style detective stories but detective Miller was not my favorite character. The highlight is Rocinante's crew dynamics. I loved the mix of Earthlings, Martians and Belters. It is interesting to imagine that as humankind explores the universe there will be new languages, mixed cultures and different body types.

**UPDATE: I had originally given this book a 3 star rating mainly because I didn't like the pace (or I was in a bad mood) but after I saw The Expanse TV series I changed my mind about the book. Is that possible? So now it is a 4 star!

reviewed Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #1)

Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

So I started reading this book 1 year ago...
I remember very vaguely that it kind of bored me; the vocabulary was complicated, the author uses some technical words I don't understand, and it generally didn't entertain me...
However, the idea of an interplanetary society that's set up in this novel, is very fascinating, additionally with the perspectives of 2 different, opposite characters, is also a very interesting way of telling a story.

Ultimately, I would give it a 3/5

Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Easily my favorite space opera series and the first book hooked this Earther. The detail and world building are outstanding and the characters and their adventures are addictive.

I'm going to skim the first six books so I can re-read Persepolis Rising and then finally read Tiamat's Wrath to prep for the last book coming out at the end of this year.

Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Um, here's a thought, but don't read it unless you've already read the book, okay:

I feel kinda horrible to say it, but I was kinda glad when Miller got killed off. Not that I wasn't sad; he was one of my favorite characters, and I really loved how he developed over the course of the novel. It's just like this: if I'm going to stick around for a what, nine-book series, I want to see that the authors aren't afraid of change. Too many books I've read are afraid to let anything happen because they want their readers to keep loving the characters they first saw. (The Oz series is predominantly on my mind; every book solved the conflict with yet another magic object to the point where one of the later plots--and in my opinion one of the more interesting ones--has an evil magician steal all their magic …

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